LONDON — Julian Assange was arrested Thursday in London on extradition charges to the United States, as well as for violating his U.K. bail conditions, after the Ecuadorian embassy he was staying in revoked his political asylum. American authorities arrested Assange around at 11 a.m. after he was taken to a central London police station, Scotland Yard said in a statement.
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The extradition warrant fell under Section 73 of the Extradition Act. Assange was accused in the U.S. of computer related offenses, Britain’s Home Office said in a statement.
After Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks, was released on bail while facing extradition to Sweden on sexual assault allegations, he sought asylum in the Ecuadorian embassy. That was seven years ago. The accusations were later dropped, but he was still wanted for jumping bail.
Assange has been the subject of U.S. Justice Department scrutiny for years for WikiLeaks’ role in publishing thousands of government secrets. He was a key figure in special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation after WikiLeaks obtained stolen emails from Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign and other Democratic groups.
WikiLeaks defended its founder in a Facebook post Thursday.
“This man is a son, a father, a brother,” the post stated. “He has won dozens of journalism awards. He’s been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize every year since 2010. Powerful actors, including CIA, are engaged in a sophisticated effort to dehumanise, delegitimize and imprison him. #ProtectJulian.”
Click here to read the full article from The New York Times.